That is to say, if you exchange one tael of silver for copper coins, you can get seven catties and two taels of copper, and if you sell them, you can get about two taels, and the yield is more than 100 percent; if you make this copper into bronze ware, you can sell it for five taels or even six taels at a high price.

And copper, like silver, is shipped very quickly, and even if there is a backlog, it is cash, so you don't have to worry about smashing it in your hand like a cloth.

With Zhao Dagui's current technical ability, there is no difficulty in obtaining copper from making money or casting copper into various utensils, and they can all be mass-produced.

Zhao Dagui has been coveting the profits of privately minting silver dollars and ruining money and casting copper for a long time, but because these two are illegal matters that the government strives to prohibit, no matter how corrupt the Qing court is, it is very reluctant to do this kind of thing in Shanghai, and he has to fight with many commercial houses some time ago, so he dare not leave a handle on people, so he can't help but dare not get involved.

However, Dinghai is still in the hands of the British, and the government can't really control this side, which is another matter, and it can just be used to make up for the holes caused by investment such as shipbuilding.

Of course, from Xu Wenqiang's point of view, the profits of legal businesses such as silk tea are so high, and they are involved in such a risky industry, which is really a bit of a problem, and I don't particularly agree.

It is not difficult to mint silver dollars privately and to cast copper by destroying money, the hardware involved is not difficult to make, and even without the help of Western machinery and scientific and technological books, industrious Chinese craftsmen have long mastered these two technologies, and some are still at the world's advanced level.

Zhao Dagui took the technicians to work secretly in Dinghai for a month, and finally established the production lines of these two projects, as long as the raw materials and sales can keep up, there can be a net income of 40,000 yuan or 50,000 yuan every month, which can be called a stable profiteering.

With this money as support, you can build ships with confidence and boldness, and you don't need to think too much about the cost.

According to Zhao Dagui's idea, he hopes to master the ability to produce steam engine ships now, but unfortunately this is not realistic, if only the design drawings can still try, but the metal processing capacity of Dagui is insufficient, that is, the cutting tools for cutting metal can not be produced by themselves, most of them rely on imports, and there is not enough high-quality iron on hand to squander.

In this case, it was possible to start with wooden sailboats, then to wooden-hulled ships with wrought iron and steel as keels, and then gradually to steam ships.

In short, industry is a meticulous job, the protagonists with the halo of the protagonist go back to ancient times, and then lead dozens of traditional workers to build a world-class steamship, such a plot can only exist in fiction, and it is impossible to happen in reality.

Fortunately, with the technical ability of the noble system, if you do not consider the cost and sales issues, simply imitate more than 1,000 tons of Western sailing ships, there is almost no technical bottleneck in the middle, that is, machine tools and knives are enough.

Zhao Dagui was rich and wealthy, and with a stroke of his pen, he decided to dig nine docks and build three Western sailing ships, three Chinese-style hard sailing ships and three Chinese-style soft sailing ships, all of which were large ships of more than 1,000 tons.

The price of a 1,000-ton Western sailing ship is about 50,000 yuan, the price of a 1,000-ton Chinese sailing ship is about 20,000 yuan, and the price of these nine ships reaches 270,000 yuan, and the cost is at least more than 150,000 yuan.

The production of these ships involved a lot of labor, and it was not enough to bring hundreds of workers alone, and it was inevitable that more workers would have to be recruited in places such as Dinghai, Shanghai, and Guangdong.

Now in charge of the British garrison in Dinghai is a major, who has been to the shipyard many times to watch the hot shipbuilding scene, and then nodded and left, without making any comments.

During this period, with the construction of nine large ships as the core, the Dagui Department made many breakthroughs in machinery manufacturing, creating a very solid technical foundation for subsequent development.

During this period, the British and the Qing court held many negotiations to discuss the delivery of Dinghai, and the British wanted to continue to hold Dinghai, but did not want to pay too much price;

The Qing court must also take Dinghai back, otherwise it will not be able to explain to the ancestors and hundreds of officials.

The two sides kept arguing at the negotiating table, and neither was sure which country Dinghai would belong to in the future, which made both sides neglect the management of Dinghai itself, resulting in no one paying attention to Zhao Dagui's brutal development in Dinghai.

At this time, it is not enough to bury one's head in the development of industry, but also to master one's own armed forces, that is to say, to have a conversation between men with the sailors led by Yang Willy.

After receiving Zhao Dagui's summons, Yang Weili put down what he was doing, came to Dinghai, and set foot on the land of Dinghai.

During this time, Yang Willy was under a lot of pressure.

It turned out that he was a librarian of a monastery in Macau, and he was close friends with Sheldun, and was later favored by Zhao Dagui, and then recruited into the sequence of Dagui's line.

Once in Shanghai, Sheldon preferred shooting and engineering matters, and entered the construction project of the silk reeling factory presided over by Zhao Dagui, while Yang Willy preferred to sail, so he was trained by British officers, received basic naval officer training, and then went to the Vostok, where he worked on the ship for nearly a year.

There were a total of nine scholars of the Western School like Yang Willy who were interested in developing in navigation, but later, due to various reasons, only six of them persisted until now.

Among these people, Yang Weili himself has the best mathematical skills, and he is particularly diligent, and he has excelled in many projects such as chart cognition, navigation and ship command, and is the leader of these six scholars, and then becomes the leader of more than 50 sailors sent by Zhao Dagui to learn the control of Western ships.

Today, Yang Willy is the second officer of the Vostok, the highest-ranking Chinese sailor and trusted by the captain and sailors of the East and West.

From this point of view alone, Yang Willy is also famous, but compared with his friend Sheldon, he is more than a star and a half behind.

It turned out that Sheldon had a good foundation in mathematics, and he was the most powerful mathematician under Li Xinlan, who performed well in the construction process of the silk reeling factory, and gradually surpassed Chen Fan, who had rich experience in shipbuilding and other affairs, and became the first Chinese engineer under Zhao Dagui.

Among the personnel of the Dagui Department, Li Xinlan and Wang Tao, as the earliest scholars to follow Zhao Dagui and the trustees who presided over the work of Oriental College, naturally belong to the first sequence;

Xu Wenqiang of Dagui Commercial Bank, as the head of Zhao Dagui's secretary office, does not seem to have a high position, but he has a lot of real power, and he has made great contributions in last year's business war, and is deeply trusted by Zhao Dagui, and also belongs to the first sequence;

Sheldon introduced Gu Sheng to Zhao Dagui, helped obtain a large number of scientific and technological books, made a lot of contributions in the construction of the silk reeling factory, and made rapid progress in shipbuilding and other aspects.

These four people have both merit and qualifications, and are known as the four giants under Zhao Dagui; and then the first to follow Zhao Dagui, the shopkeeper Chen, the shopkeeper Zhang, Bai Siyuan and other ministerial-level figures who hold real power, are also high-ranking and powerful people.

In contrast, although Captain Chris, who commanded the Vostok, was courteous to Zhao Dagui, he was at most in the third order, and even Chris himself thought that this division was very reasonable, and he was very polite when he met Sheldon and Li Xinlan and others.

So, the question is, Captain Chris is only counted as the third sequence, so as the second officer of the Dongfang (not yet the first mate), what sequence should Yang Willy count?